15 Using GDB with Different Languages

Although programming languages generally have common aspects, they are
rarely expressed in the same manner. For instance, in ANSI C,
dereferencing a pointer p is accomplished by *p, but in
Modula-2, it is accomplished by p^. Values can also be
represented (and displayed) differently. Hex numbers in C appear as
‘0x1ae’, while in Modula-2 they appear as ‘1AEH’.

Language-specific information is built into GDB for some languages,
allowing you to express operations like the above in your program’s
native language, and allowing GDB to output values in a manner
consistent with the syntax of your program’s native language. The
language you use to build expressions is called the working
language.